Oct 19, 2013 5:33 PM

I've got a customer who is concerned he has false widow spiders and indeed he has taken them for identification at a well known public aquarium that has spiders and insects. They put them under the microscope and confirmed that they are. I'm not so sure. What do you think?

This is a lace weaver spider (Amaurobius species), a spider commonly found in & around houses. There are a few species (A. similis, A. fenestralis, etc.) it's not possible to tell exactly which this is by the photo.